1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water dispenser of a refrigerator, and more particularly to a valve assembly of a water dispenser.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A water dispenser or beverage dispenser is an implement for automatically dispensing drinking water or beverages, which is installed in a house, on office or a public lot for domestic or commercial use. A valve assembly of the water dispenser of a commercially available beverage dispenser employs an actuator which is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,849 issued to Cradle, Jr. on Apr. 19, 1994.
Also, the water dispenser is utilized as a household or office product. In recent years, a beverage dispenser installed in a refrigerator has been suggested. The refrigerator is an appliance for storing a variety of foodstuffs under freezing or refrigerating temperatures in order to main freshness of the foodstuffs for a long time period. The refrigerator is provided with a compartment for storing foodstuffs which is partitioned into a freezer compartment for storing foodstuffs under a freezing temperature and a refrigerating compartment for storing foodstuffs under a refrigerating temperature. The freezer compartment and refrigerating compartment are respectively supplied with cool air generated from an evaporator.
The cool air is directly supplied to the interior of the freezer compartment from the evaporator by means of a fan. Some of the cool air is supplied to the interior of the refrigerating compartment and has its temperature raised while flowing through a duct internally formed in the refrigerator. The freezer compartment and refrigerating compartment are installed with doors at the frontal sides to allow for the act of putting in/taking out the foodstuffs.
In addition, in the refrigerating compartment drinking water is stored. The drinking water is stored within the refrigerating compartment after a container is filled with the drinking water. In order to drink the water stored within the refrigerating compartment, the door is opened to take out the container filled with the drink water. However, the refrigerating efficiency of the refrigerator is lowered by frequently opening he door of the refrigerator.
Recently, in order to solve die above disadvantage, an apparatus for dispensing water of a refrigerator has been proposed, in which the drinking water within the refrigerating compartment can be taken out without opening the door of the refrigerating compartment. FIG. 1 is a section view showing a valve assembly 100 of the water dispenser for the refrigerator, wherein the valve assembly 100 is installed to the front plane of a refrigerating compartment door 10. Here, valve assembly 100 furnished to refrigerating compartment door 10 is formed by a valve body 110 which has an inlet 112 connected to a reservoir (not shown) installed to the inner side of door 10 and has an outlet 114 penetrating through the lower surface thereof. In addition, a valve spool 120 for opening/closing outlet 114, a valve cap 130 for closing the upper portion of valve body 110 and a lever 140 which pivots in order to transfer valve spool 120 up and down, are furnished thereto.
Valve spool 120 includes a rod 124 which is connected to lever 140 by means of a hinge 122 and is moving up and down by the pivoting motion of lever 140, a packing member 126 attached to the lower end of rod 124 for closing outlet 114, and a spring 128 installed between the lower surface of valve cap 130 and packing member 126 for exerting a biasing force upon rod 124. Inlet 112 of valve body 110 is in communicating relation with the inner side of door 10, and is connected to the reservoir placed to the inner side of door 10. The water within the reservoir flows into valve body 110 via inlet 112. Inlet 112 is maintained as being filled with water.
Once the user grips a cup and pushes lever 140 by the cup, lever 140 pivots to raise rod 124 by overcoming the biasing force of spring 128, thereby opening outlet 114. At this time, the water within the reservoir is dispensed and fills up cup 20 under outlet 114.
For sanitary reasons, disposable articles such as a paper cup 20 or a paper-envelope cup, which is used once is generally utilized instead of a plastic cup. Since paper cup 20 has an soft structure, it becomes deformed when lever 140 is pushed by means of paper cup 20. Accordingly, the user must push lever 140 by using the hand gripping paper cup 20. However, in the conventional water dispenser, the water coring out of outlet 114 of valve assembly 100 sometimes lands on the hand of a user, thereby irritating the user. Moreover, in order to connect valve assembly 100 to the reservoir, a wide space of refrigerating compartment door 10 is needed, so the space efficiency of door 10 is lowered. Additionally, after proper time passing, a deposit stacks in inlet 112 of valve body 110, then the deposit causes dirtiness of the water dispenser.